Vol. 61 NO. 79 | Commencement Issue, Wednesday, April 25, 2012 | www.ubspectrum.com
Life
Arts Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain Story on page 8
Sikander Khan Leaves Everlasting Black Eye on Student Association
Sports
Library Legacy Story on page 15
AARON MANSFIELD Senior Life Editor
Brazen and bearded Sikander Khan once proclaimed to the SA Senate: “I am not afraid of anything.” He once told Spectrum reporters he has “the balls of an elephant.” He told on-campus Senator Daniel Ovadia: “I learned politics in my mother’s womb.” Students say he is known on campus as a womanizer, and he specifically requests to be interviewed by female members of The Spectrum, whom he refers to as “beautiful ladies.”
MATTHEW PARRINO Editor in Chief
It would be a dramatic understatement to say Khan is an audacious character.
I am the editor in chief of The Spectrum, but I am also a student at UB and for the past three weeks I’ve had a front row seat for one of the biggest scandals in Student Association history.
Khan resigned as Student Association treasurer on Friday following The Spectrum’s investigation of the $300,000 contract he signed with a company, Virtual Academix, that appears to be counterfeit.
The scariest part is that nobody in my office was surprised when SA Treasurer Sikander Khan wanted to fork over $300,000 of student money for a mobile application produced by a company that had no record or any discernable employees. That’s because we’re all used to SA’s nonsense.
If you read the profile on Khan in today’s paper, you’ll probably be as bewildered as I have been by his silence. Isn’t it strange that a man who never turned away from a chance to let his voice be heard has suddenly lost his ability to speak and hear? Ironically, he ran for treasurer last year as part of the “VOICE” Party with current Vice President Meghan McMonagle (who also wanted to fork over the $300,000 and hasn’t spoken since) and President JoAnna Datz (who Khan hasn’t spoken to virtually all semester). Rather than explain himself to the 18,000 undergraduates he’s claimed to serve for the past 12 months, he resigned from his post. I think he is just biding his time. Full confession: Khan is mad at me. Why?
Khan hasn’t spoken to the public since the article about the scandal was published on April 11, but The Spectrum conducted an interview with him at the end of March. Profile of Sikander Kahn attempts to show the man behind the scandal.
That’s why my staff and I launched an investigation into Virtual Academix, the company Khan wanted to give $300,000 in student money. My investigation didn’t turn up a lot of hard evidence, but there sure were a lot of half-truths and shades of grey. As a journalist and as editor in chief, I’ve learned to hold back any information I can’t verify. If I’m not sure if something is right, I’m not going to put it in print. That’s my pact with you, my readers. So, much of what I learned, we didn’t print. But my staff and I did find a lot of odd connections – UB connections. But no one would talk to us. When we tried again, almost every source directed us to a lawyer who had no comment. To date, we don’t really know how the $300,00 deal originated or where the student money would have gone. We can’t even find anyone to tell us what Virtual Academix is – or was. Continued on page 2
Inside
Opinion 3
Spectrum File Photo
“You don’t have to believe any word that I say,” Khan said during the March interview. “You can go out and do your own research and if any word I say I lied in the recording, I’m liable to impeachment – straight up, no doubt about it. If I lie to the Senate, if I lie to administration, if I lie to The Spectrum, I’m up for impeachment right away. Forget impeachment, I will resign.” Khan, a senior computer engineering major, grew up in India and was one of the few Muslim students in an allboys Catholic high school. He has boasted a brash disposition since day one; he told The Spectrum last month that he was a troublemaker in school. Khan’s father was the State Minister for Sports in Madhya Pradesh, India. Despite growing up in a political household, Khan disliked politics. But he still wanted to get involved at UB. So he ran for president of the Muslim SA and transformed it into one of the most successful clubs in SA history. During his presidency, MSA won the Special Interest Services and Hobbies club of the year. As president of one of the biggest student organizaContinued on page 4
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Will Appeal Its Derecognition by SA LISA EPSTEIN Staff Writer The UB InterVarsity Christian Fellowship will start an appeal process to regain Student Association recognition as a club as soon as possible. The SA Senate derecognized the club on April 15. News of the appeal comes amid rumors that the club will also sue SA. The club lost its $6,000 in mandatory student activity fee funding this past fall after its former treasurer said he was forced to resign because he is gay. A subsequent SA investigation determined the club’s constitution violated UB and SA anti-discrimination policies. SA Senate Chair Darwinson Valdez
Simple. I’m a journalist and I want answers – for myself and for you, the students I serve.
Story on page 28
Shaken Khan-fidence
*OPINION*
The organization claims to be dedicated solely to our needs as students. But if you’ve followed The Spectrum this semester, getting anybody in SA to speak about anything that matters is like trying to make it from NSC to the CFA in time for your next class.
Going the Distance One Mile From Home
said the IVCF had more than enough time to adapt its constitution to SA guidelines. He said the Senate knew there was possibility of a lawsuit after the decision to derecognize the club, but the Senate gave the club clear instructions about how to remain a part of SA. “We gave them around 10 weeks from the first notice…I don’t want to say, ‘So be it,’ but we did what we could to maintain them as a club,” Valdez said. Valdez said he supported the extensions given to IVCF because it is a local chapter of a national organization, which it had to communicate with. Dan Jao, the national field director for IVCF, said he has only briefly
spoken with the UB chapter since it was derecognized. “At this point, InterVarsity at UB is [trying] to go through the appeals process with the Student-Wide Judiciary,” Jao said. “We are trusting that [it] will be a fair process and that we’ll get a fair hearing, so that’s our current plan.” During the April 15 Senate meeting, IVCF was given a chance to prove it was not in violation of any antidiscrimination policies to the Senate that. IVCF’s Shant Tamazian told the Senate that there was another UB investigation that concluded the club did not violate any federal, state, or university anti-discrimination policies. Tamazian said the Campus Ministries Association, which IVCF
is also a part of, and UB’s office of Student Life conducted that investigation. Liz Hladczuk of Student Life said she had never heard of the investigation. “I actually don’t know anything about [Student Life’s involvement],” Hladczuk said. “What you said about them being derecognized by the Student Association, I have heard [about that]. I know SA was having hearings, like going over their constitution, but I actually don’t know anything about [a Student Life investigation].” The Campus Ministries Association could not be reached for comment. Some SA senators believe the possiContinued on page 11
Undergraduate Daniel Ovadia
Wins Spot on UB Council SARA DINATALE Asst. News Editor
Both undergraduate and graduate students can vote in UB Council elections.
Daniel Ovadia will be the next University Council Student Representative for the 201213 academic year, defeating incumbent Mia Jorgensen by a 341-185 margin in an online election.
“I really appreciate the support that I received from the students, and I look forward to representing the UB population as a whole,” Ovadia said. “To that end, if anyone has any ideas, suggestions, [or] issues, I’d really like to hear from them.”
Thomas Scott, chair of the University Council Representative Committee, officially released the results via email on Monday. Ovadia is now the voice of the entire student body to the UB Council, a top university board that consists of nine governor-appointed members. Only 539 UB students voted in the election (13 voters abstained from choosing a candidate), a slight increase from last year’s 490 but still less than 2 percent of the student body.
Ovadia, a 24-year-old junior business major, said he plans to find students whose voices haven’t been heard and bring their concerns to the Council. UB’s diverse campus leaves students with many different needs, and Ovadia said he plans on addressing that by establishing better communication between and among students, student governments, and other officials and organizations on campus, like the Council. Continued on page 11
| News 3 | Life 3 | Arts 3 | Classifieds&Daily Delights 3 | Sports 3
Spectrum File Photo Daniel Ovadia defeated incumbent Mia Jorgensen in last week’s election for the UB Council’s student representative. While the departing Jorgensen is a graduate student, Ovadia is an undergraduate.